Now that we have had a few days to let it sit and percolate in our minds, let’s look back to see what we learned from last weekend’s mostly lackluster NFL games.
1. A lot of people are going to be concerned about my Buccaneers, but I’m not. Jeff Garcia wasn’t playing and they still took Atlanta to overtime. They are going to beat San Diego this week, then they will cruise past the Raiders with ease, and they’ll be comfortably in the playoffs. I still believe.
I’m going to leave he review of last weekend’s football action for one day because there is too much other news to talk about:
82 year old Joe Paterno, fresh off of hip replacement surgery, has a new contract extension for three more years at Penn State. There are literally dozens of ways a guy could make fun of the situation, but given that the team is heading to the Rose Bowl as Big Ten champs while my team isn’t going anywhere. This is a situation we should appreciate while we can, I guess, because we sure won’t see anything like it again. I would love to be a fly on the wall around the program to know what kind of a role he actually plays with the team. Surely he can’t be very active anymore.
I am clearly a curse of death for any college basketball team. Without a word of exaggeration, my plan for tonight was sit down and write a piece about Syracuse basketball. With a win tonight over Cleveland State they would be 10-0 for the first time in a long time, and their combination of talent, outstanding coaching and expectations tempered by a tough conference set them up very well as a sleeper in my book. It was going to be good. But then I fired up my computer, looked at the scoreboard, and felt my heart sink. See, Syracuse was favored by 10.5 at home over Cleveland State, but they forgot to show up and lost to a late three pointer. That’s yet another team to add to the list of teams that flounder and fall as soon as I jump on the bandwagon. The loss could be worse for Syracuse, I guess – Cleveland State was only 6-4 coming into the game, but they had been well tested, with games against teams like West Virginia, Butler, Kansas State and Washington under their belts. They were a perfect 0-4 against that group, though, so there really wasn’t an excuse. I obviously don’t think that this is reason enough to write of Syracuse, but they have a bit to prove before I believe in them again.
Amazing how close the Heisman was. Fitting. The only shame is that Graham Harrell wasn’t more competitive. He had a lousy game, but a heck of a season.
I have noticed a trend this year – I watch a college basketball game, get impressed by the team playing, write nice things about them, then they go out and get beat at their earliest possible opportunity. First Duke, and now Gonzaga. Arizona looked very good in the win. As a service to all of you, I will be sure to let you know what games I watch as soon as I watch them so you can fade who I like.
Worst NFL Game of the Weekend – 2-11 Seattle at 2-11 St. Louis is quite likely the worst game of the season, and perhaps of a few seasons. Both teams have all sorts of problems, neither have anything to play for, and I can’t think of a single interesting storyline to make this one worth watching. I’m far from the only one who thinks this way – betting volume on this game is by far the lowest of any all weekend.
A couple of very interesting things showed up in the news today, and both have a significant impact on my out look of the teams involved:
1. Steve Nash and the Jason Richardson trade. On paper, Richardson makes the Suns better. There’s an interesting angle I had forgotten about until I read it, though – Raja Bell and Steve Nash were best friends and were practically inseparable. According to Nash, the first he heard of the possibility of a trade was when he woke up from his pre-game nap, checked his texts, and saw the news. Bell was already at the airport.
1. Go, go Buffalo. I was thrilled to see the Bulls win the MAC championship on Friday night by beating Ball State. I was there for their first game this year, and I have seen them play a couple other times, too. The team has a couple of nice players, but the big lesson here is that coach Turner Gill is really, really good. He has interviewed for Auburn, and he’ll get looks regularly until he gets hired somewhere else. The guy is going to end up at a top program sooner or later, and he is going to do very well once he gets there.
Colt McCoy says that he is coming back to Texas for his senior year. That’s a bit surprising, but I’m glad. Not that I have any love for Texas at all – their suffering makes me happy. I just like it when guys come back for another year. Not that it makes much sense here, really. This year he is in an ideal situation – no matter what happens in the BCS Championship game he can tell anyone who will listen that they would have been the better team if they were given the chance to prove it. Things can’t get much better for him next year,but they can get worse. Somebody should give McCoy Matt Leinart’s number. Or Brian Brohm’s.
If you have read this blog or any time at all then you know that I bleed Maize and Blue. If you have eyes, you also know that this has been a very, very ugly time to be a Michigan fan. After years of underwhelming futility and disappointment at the end of the Lloyd Carr era, the football team redefined just how bad a season can be in Ann Arbor this year. I am certain that things will get better, but that assertion is more than just a small test of my faith. Same basic story in basketball – Tommy Amaker led us to bland underachievement, then the world imploded last year in the first season under a new coach from West Virginia. We have had many glory days in both sports, but they seem just a distant, practically impossible memory now. Us Michigan fans deserve a break, so you can forgive my gloating now as I say this – Michigan may be the greatest basketball team in the history of the sport!!!
There are some mostly meaningless and uninteresting regular season games to be played today. The interesting ones, though, are obviously the five conference championship games that are being played. One, Buffalo and Ball State for the MAC, is already in the books. Here’s a quick look at the other four, in order of their starting time:
East Carolina (+11.5) vs. Tulsa – This should be a much more interesting game than it actually is. Both teams looked like they had the potential to be giant killers earlier in the season, but neither was able to hold it together. East Carolina has covered just twice in their last 10, while Tulsa has just one cover in their last four and is coming off an incredibly flat game at Marshall last week. One of these teams has to win, but it is pretty hard to care – after all, the prize is only a Liberty Bowl berth.
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